CD Mastering Software - what do you use or recommend?

Z

zoetrope

New member
I want to be able to take a bunch of songs and get the levels somewhat even before burning a CD. Final EQ would be nice too. I'd also like to be able to drop track markers in the middle of wav files, but that's not crucial. Mainly I want to know what people use to burn CDs that is flexible, stable, usable, and edible.

Ok, not edible. :D
 
i know that many people use wavelab to do their mastering. also, sonic foundry just released cd architect 5.0, which is also supposed to be an excellent program. i believe you can use eq and also effects such as compression, etc, on both of those programs.

personally, since i already have the program, i use sonic foundry's vegas video, which can be used to burn red book audio cd's, but soon i am going to purchase one of the programs that i mentioned above.
 
IMHO there are two categories of mastering software. The host programs (e.g., Wavelab, Sound Forge, Samplitude, ) and mastering plugins (e.g., Waves Ltd, Ozone, Steinberg Mastering Edition, and a bunch of other ones).

Many of the host programs also provide some native plug-ins that can be used for Mastering.

Of course, price is always an issue. In my experience I have been getting pretty good results using Wavelab for the host program and the Waves Gold Bundle for my mastering plugins (L1 and C4 are great) - but it is an expensive combination.

Sound Forge together with Ozone would be a much cheaper way to go, if price is an issue.

Also, you could probably use your multitracking program as the host if you wanted, then you would only need some mastering plugins. Not my preferred approach (as generally you will have less tools available to you) but it can work and will save you some money.

So, how much did you want to spend? :D
 
good stuff

Thanks for all the replies so far.
Cost is not the issue, I want something good. The kind of program that when you start it up you say, ok, here we go! I'm getting the impression that Wavelab is more popular/common/whatever. I'd love to hear from others with thoughts on the topic.
 
N-Track or any decent multitrack software where you can use plug-ins like sonictimeworks multiband compressor etc will work good enough if you have a wav editor for editing the raw tracks with your multitrack. I use N-Track as to assemble and adjust levels, compress or eq. each song is a stereo pair with fades and everything the way I wan't. All done at 24/48 then I dither down to a single stereo wav. I then take that into Feurio and drop my PQ's and burn with no gaps. Ronny Morris recommended Feurio and its been great for burning CD's. N-Track is less than $100 bucks, Feurio is $30 and the Wav editors vary quite alot, $199 to $1200.


SoMm
 
Son of Mixerman, how do you get the levels consistent from song to song... and by consistent i'm not implying that every song have the same volume, just that the songs are of the same relative volume.

I use Samplitude Master (ie... SEKD RedRoaster)
 
SLuiCe said:
That's great because I think the combination Dachay is recommending will run ya about $1500 plus.
Click to expand...
:D :D

OK, how's this. Waves Masters for $675 and Wavelab 4.0 for $419. (Also, Wavelab 4.0 has a competitive upgrade available for $299, but I don't know what qualifies for it.)

However, no matter how you sluice it (I mean slice it), your still looking at around $1K. As I said earlier, you can do Sound Forge 6.0 and Ozone for probably $500 total. Pick your poison.

BTW, you can probably get a CD professionally mastered for around $500. And NO learning curve. :)


*prices off 8th Street web site*
 
What's the fun in that?

"BTW, you can probably get a CD professionally mastered for around $500. And NO learning curve"

I could hire someone to play my guitar for me too, but that's not what i want. :D

DIY or die, I say. Well, I don't really say that, but i just did.

Anyway, you mentioned Ozone. Anyone have experience using it? I'm currently reading their mastering guide which of course pushes their software. In terms of usability and quality does it compare to wavelab or Cd architect?

Again, thanks for the responses so far.
 
crosstudio said:
Son of Mixerman, how do you get the levels consistent from song to song... and by consistent i'm not implying that every song have the same volume, just that the songs are of the same relative volume.

I use Samplitude Master (ie... SEKD RedRoaster)
Click to expand...

Hey Crosstudio,

Since the volume of a song relative to the others is apparent, you listen to the song and move the fader for that stereo track until it sounds equally loud. Lots of ME's have been using protools, nuendo and sequoia for mastering because it has similar funtions to SadiE and Sonic Solutions. CD Architect is basically a multitrack editor and shares special features specific to Mastering. Those special features can be found as plug-in's and used with existing multitrackers. Feurio has alot of advanced features that Mastering guys use but since its not integrated with multitrack editing so its pretty cheap. Having the ability to see the waveform and do spectrals based on regions you can piece the puzzle together. Of coarse this all comes from experience, trial and error, time and failures galore. One of the hardest thing to do is piecing different songs form different live performances and getting the audience to crossfade without being obvious making poeple think its all recorded as the same concert. Try adding a live audience to all your songs, then piece them together for an excersise in relative loudness and apparent loudness and studio albums become a breeze. Try it, its fun.

Peace,
SoMm
 
Son of Mixerman,

If i had read your first post correctly, I wouldn't have had to ask.

you said in the original post that you put all of your stereo (ie.. mixed) tracks together and master them to a single stereo track.

RIF (reading is fundamental)
 
Re: What's the fun in that?

zoetrope said:
Anyway, you mentioned Ozone. Anyone have experience using it? I'm currently reading their mastering guide which of course pushes their software. In terms of usability and quality does it compare to wavelab or Cd architect?
Click to expand...

Ozone is outstanding, great, fantastic. (Can you tell I like it?)

One of the nice things about is that you can download a demo and give a free try yourself -- nobody can tell what will work for you as well as you can. The demo mutes the sound after several seconds, then comes back, but it lets you hear exactly what Ozone can do for you.

For normalizing a group of files to about the same level, you eventually have to get your ears involved. I like using Cool Edit Pro's group normalization feature as a starting point. Oh, one other thing...Cool Edit Pro also has a demo - time limited, and it won't save MP3s, but it would let you check that out, as well as providing a host for Ozone.

-lee-
 
I don't know everything and have not tried everything, but I know what I like. SoundForge and CoolEdit are neat, but limited. Wavelab is the shaziznit. They thought of everything. Just add your top-of-the-line plugs and go.
-kent
 
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